Fiery Folklore: 5 Dazzling Sun Myths

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On Sunday (May 20), a solar eclipse will blot out the sun for
viewers across much of Asia, the Pacific and western North
America. These days, eclipses aren't a big mystery — they occur
when the moon passes between Earth and the sun. But throughout
history, the sun's significance, along with its mysteriousness,
have yielded an array of solar myths.

From the fearsome figures that try to devour the sun to nine lost
suns of the Chinese sky, here are the stories that have sought to
explain our nearest
star.

How Hou Yi shot the sun

In ancient Chinese mythology, the sky had not one, but 10 suns.
Every day, the solar goddess Shiho would pick up one of these
suns (also her sons) and wheel him across the sky in her chariot.
In the meantime, the other nine would play among the leaves of
the mythical Fusang tree, believed to be more than 10,000 feet
tall. [ Gallery
of Sun Gods and Goddesses ]

This system worked well until the day that the suns grew bored of
their responsibility. They decided to run across the sky all at
once, planning to generate enough light and heat so that they
could all take a few days off. Instead, this solar scamper dried
up rivers, scorched the Earth and led to widespread
drought.

Taking pity on suffering mortals, the sun god Dijun called in the
expert archer Hou Yi. With 10 magic arrows, the story goes that
Hou Yi was to discipline the irresponsible suns. The archer
stalked and killed nine suns and would have snuffed out the last
as well if a young boy hadn't stolen his final arrow, saving
Earth from perpetual darkness.

Ancient Chinese myth also holds that
solar eclipses were caused by a demon or dragon devouring the
sun, leading to a tradition in which people would play drums or
bang pots to scare the sun-eater away. In actuality, Chinese
astronomers seemed to understand eclipses as natural phenomena
dating back at least as far as 720 B.C., with older observations
scratched into bones dating back perhaps 3,000 years.

In ancient Norse legend, the sun goddess Sol travels through the
sky chased by the wolf Sköll, who intends to devour her. (Sköll's
brother Hati does the same to the moon at night.) Eclipses were
said to be a sign that Sköll was dangerously close to catching
Sol.

In fact, the Norse believed that one day, the sun would finally
be devoured. Mythology foretold a huge battle called Ragnarök, in
which major gods would die and the Earth would be engulfed in a
massive flood. This apocalypse would wipe the Earth, clean to be
repopulated by a pair of human survivors. [ Top
10 Ways to Destroy Earth ]

Sailing the sun boat

One of the most important deities in the
Egyptian pantheon was Ra, the falcon-headed sun god. Legend
had it that every day Ra captained a boat crewed by gods across
the sky. (This boat was called Mandjet, or the "Boat of Millions
of Years" — an underestimate, given that our star is actually
about 4.5 billion years old.)

At night, Ra returned to the east via the underworld, bringing
light to the dead. It was a treacherous journey: Apep, an evil
serpent god, attempted to stop Ra by devouring him. Solar
eclipses were thought to be days when Apep got the upper hand,
though Ra always managed to escape.

Jealous star

According to a Cherokee legend, the sun long ago grew jealous of
her brother
the moon because the people of Earth always looked at her
with twisted-up faces and squinted eyes, while they smiled at his
gentle light. The sun's daughter lived in the middle of sky, so
every day, the sun stopped to visit her. Angry at humans for
their ugly expressions, the sun began using these opportunities
to send down so much heat that people began to die of fever.

The humans turned to the Little Men, who in Cherokee legend were
friendly, magical spirits who dwelt in the forests. The Little
Men said that the sun must die, so they turned one man into
a rattlesnake and another into a fearsome antlered serpent
called the Uktena.

The rattlesnake arrived at the sun's daughter's house to wait for
her arrival. But while he was waiting, the sun's daughter opened
her door. The rattlesnake accidentally bit her, killing her. When
the sun came to see her daughter, she discovered her dead and
began to weep, flooding the Earth with her tears.

Desperate to please the sun and stop the weeping, the people of
Earth made an attempt to rescue the dead daughter from the land
of ghosts, but failed. When they returned, the sun began to weep
even harder. To distract her, the people began to dance and play
music until she finally became happy again.

The Maori people of New Zealand tell a tale about a long-ago time
when the days were shorter than they are now. The hero Maui often
heard his brothers lamenting the lack of light during the day. He
decided to solve the problem by taming the sun. Although his
brothers were skeptical, they and their tribe helped Maui weave a
net out of flax.

Maui and his brothers then set out to the east to find the sun's
resting place. They covered the entry to the sun's cave with nets
and smeared themselves with clay to protect against the sun's
heat. When the sun emerged, it fought and struggled in the nets,
but the brothers held firm. Maui began to beat the sun — some
stories say he had an ax, others a club made of the jawbone of an
ancestor — until the star was so weakened that it could no longer
race across the sky. According to the legend, that is why the sun
travels so slowly in the sky today.